To their own devices: Pablo Larrain's 'The Club'

January 21, 2015

Maybe I was asked because all my students know I'm a Packers fan. Or, maybe the Green Bay mug on my desk prompted the asking. Either way, doesn't matter. During the last period of the day, Oscar asked me what I thought about that game on Sunday.
He asked, and I didn't have an answer.

The loss was painful to watch. The way it happened--with so many opportunities and chances for it to have happened any other way--makes it easy to use words like 'devastating' and 'horrendous'. My father's choice as it was happening was to text me the word 'pathetic'. And he was right. Probably all of these words are right. But, when asked, I said none of them. It's Wednesday now. The game was on Sunday. Life moves on. And you realize that while sports can introduce us to more vulnerable versions of ourselves they are never able to pierce what we are. I don't know, maybe I'm just getting older, but the only words that do the game justice, in my mind, are could and should. Everything else comes steeped in melodrama.

The Packers should not have won. To say they should have is akin to believing in destiny or fate. There was no plan for them to lose, just as there was no plan for the Seahawks to win. I know this because the Packers easily could have won. There were so many plays during that game where they could have won it, but they didn't and therefore they should not have won. Could've? Yes. Should've? No. Life moves on, through the regret, the remorse, and the second guessing. We get older. We get better. Some things hurt less. And some things more. First week of September I'll be watching again.